Mackenzie joins Sunderland as recruitment consultant

SUNDERLAND have brought in Rob Mackenzie on a three-month contract as a ‘recruitment operations consultant’.

His focus will be on “evaluating scouting processes and providing recommendations leading into the summer transfer window”.

It’s likely to be a busy job, with Jan Kirchhoff, Victor Anichebe and Seb Larsson all out of contract this summer, and loan players Javier Manquillo, Adnan Januzaj and Jason Denayer returning to their parent clubs.

Jermain Defoe, Jordan Pickford, Lamine Kone and Fabio Borini are all also expected to be sold.

Mackenzie, who is just 31, was Leicester City’s Head of Technical Scouting from 2011 to 2015, working under Steve Walsh.

He moved to Tottenham in 2015 to become Head of Player Identification, before switching to Derby in August 2016 as Director of Recruitment.

That job lasted only three months though, after Steve McClaren returned as manager and the club appointed Chris Evans as technical director and McClaren's son, Joe, as chief scout.